Stat of the Week  Nov. 29, 2006

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced approval for three additional states to incorporate the growth of individual students into adequate yearly progress calculations ("3 States Get OK to Use ‘Growth Model’ to Gauge AYP," Nov. 15, 2006.) Delaware, Arkansas, and Florida will join North Carolina and Tennessee, who began using growth models as part of the department's pilot program last year.

Nine more statesArizona, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utahcurrently have proposals under review, while Alaska and Oregon's proposals were turned down for the second time.

Quality Counts 2006 found that 28 states assign ratings to schools based on state-developed criteria, with eight of those states including a measure of individual student growth in their ratings. Of the states with approval to incorporate student growth into AYP calculations, all but North Carolina also utilize student growth in assigning state ratings to schools. Arizona is the only state of those with proposals currently under consideration that already utilizes a measure of individual student growth in its state rating system.

To find out more about accountability in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, access the Education Counts database.